I swear she remembers.
The weather has turned cold here in Oklahoma and it is bringing back a flood of memories from last year's ice storm. December of 2007 brought my green iguana, Picabo, and I closer than ever before, literally and figuratively. I came home from work that evening to a cold and dark home. Our electricity had gone out that morning, and little did I know it would end up being the most stressful and frightening time for the both of us. I live alone, save for my "green daughter". She was a rescue lizard that was literally caught eating from a stray cat bowl at a local apartment complex. My first iggie had been at the vet with a terminal case of granulosis and past away there. That same day, my vet offered the newly found iguana, and with some hesitation, I took her in. She's been with me ever since. On that cold first day of the ice storm, I panicked wondering if the power would come on soon. Not knowing how to keep her warm, I put her in the back of my SUV and kept the engine and heater going out in the driveway. This wouldn't work for long as I had to stay out there with her and wasn't about to get any sleep. That night I took her back in the house with me and put her in bed next to me. She never moved that night and stayed completely under the covers. The next morning, the power is still out, and now I'm running out of options. I used up my cell phone battery looking for a hotel room, but power was out everywhere! No room for us. So back in the SUV we went. I drove around for a while, and saw the damage the frozen tree limbs had done to our power lines. It took the better part of a week to restore the electricity. Finally, I managed to find a pet store in another town close by that had their power restored. They were taking in pets as long as they had room. I got there and purchased a tank with heater setup and now she was safe. I will never forget that pet store staff's compassion and how they did what they could to save the pets as best they could. Today, when I got home, the lights are on and her habitat heat panel is doing its job. The neighbor's house next door has a little sleet/snow on their roof, and I swear Picabo was staring at it, and remembering...
Hopefully, last year was a freak occurance, and won't happen again for a long time. How do you folks that live in the real cold climates handle it if and when your power goes out for a extended time? I've thought about getting a generator, but I'm still not sure. I'd like to hear of other's similar experiences and how you handled it.
Jesse
